… from pre-sewn, wrinkled and heavy curtain fabric is like – remodeling a house versus building it from the ground up. Really, I get it now – I always thought when you have something to work with it should be easy to change it. Nope.

What I had to work with is this: about 25 yards of curtain fabric, that is 25 yards of CONTINUOUS fabric. Heavy like hell. Previously pleated into a manageable width. The task: 14 rather small panels for windows and doors. All rectangles, and lined on top of it. That makes 28 rectangles.

You have to picture me on all fours sprawled over the fabric that pretty much covers the entire length of my shop. Every once in a while I was throwing huge piles of fabric in the air on order to straighten it out on the ground. And then the cutting – along seams and a grain that don’t align. I need a construction ‘something’. A ruler, long one, a corner of perfect 90 degrees. I will go to the hardware store.

In the meantime, the weather was getting hotter and I wanted my customer couple to be able to shade themselves. So for the last three days, I was cutting out small rectangles out of this huge amount of fabric. There where actually four sets of different sized rectangles. Every evening, I loaded sets onto my bicycle, sewed the rectangles together (curtain AND lining, remember), took it back to the store, ironed and finished each set.

As I was folding the finished sets, I noticed how some were off – not a perfect rectangle.

They came by (with the car), loaded up the rest of the curtain panels – they can line entire rooms with them – and their new small panels and drove off. A while later, R. cam by with a bottle of wine. They are so happy to be able to shade their house, they love it. And it apparently did not matter that some of the panels are not a perfect rectangle. But let me tell you – cutting the perfect rectangle is difficult!